Random Thoughts & A Beautiful Sunset

I spent last Friday at Lake Tahoe for a wedding, and we decided to stop at a beach for a quick photo opportunity while the sun set. It was such a beautiful evening, and honestly, one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen.  I wanted to share some of the pictures I took, which are totally unedited, and share some of the random thoughts taking up space in my head.

School is starting soon, for all of us.  Well, not for Liam.  He'll start preschool next fall, when he'll be three and a half.  But, Maggie and I go back to school on the 20th. She's doing one more year of preschool before kindergarten, which was a decision I talked about here. I'm going back for my last semester at our community college before I transfer to a state university in the spring.  I am so excited about this!

I am starting to get pretty anxious about the transition back into the school year, which happens to me every fall. I am just trying to get organized and start planning everything out. I need to get calendars ready for family things, my school assignments and commitments, and start writing some blog posts in advance.

I am obsessed with Pinterest. I pin a lot. It is one of my favorite ways to relax and I can convince myself that I am doing something somewhat productive and creative. I actually use a lot of my pins, too.  The housekeeping pins, recipes ideas, and DIY pins are so helpful, in a way I don't know what I ever did without Pinterest.  In you're on Pinterest, I want to follow you!  Follow me here.

I have not been drawing or painting enough, which is so disappointing to me.  I could be creating at night, after the kids go to bed, but I have been spending my free time doing totally unproductive stuff (see above paragraph about Pinterest.)  I've done some sketching and some digital art, but I have not felt very compelled to create art. I am getting a little worried about jumping back into figure drawing while being so rusty, so I'm hoping to sketch at least 15-30 mins a day until school starts, just to get back in the groove.

It is hot.  I bet it's hot where you are, too.  This whole "record setting year" for heat thing is not fun at all.  We have an evaporative cooler (known as a Swamp Cooler around here), which doesn't really do much when it is 105 degrees.  So, we have learned to live in a 90 degree house, which means lots of water and laying around in the afternoon.  I am so, so, SO ready for fall...although, here, fall doesn't really happen until the end of October.

BlogHer '13. It's in Chicago, at the end of July, and like always, I really want to go! BlogHer is a huge blogging convention that happen annually, and for years I have watched the blogging world participate.  Chicago is closer than New York (this year's location), but it would still be a huge stretch to get me there.  And, I would actually have to commit to blogging on a very regular basis for the trip to really make sense. And, I would need a roommate to share the costs, which means I would actually need to have a fairly close relationship with another blogger who is going. And I don't.  Any takers to become my friend over the next year, so we can go together next year? 

Since I will be planning my posts further ahead of time now, I wanted to ask you all (all five or six of you, LOL) if there is anything you would like to see more on this blog.  More fashion?  More recipes? More DIY? More writing? Less writing? No writing? No blog? 

P.S.- "No Blog" isn't an option ;)

What I Wore Wednesday- The Vodka Tonic Edition

Why the '"Vodka Tonic edition", you ask?

Well, I was lucky enough to be drinking them when both of these pictures were taken.  I was happily invited by my friend, Amy, to be her plus one at the wedding of our mutual friends from high school, Lindsay.  Her wedding was in Lake Tahoe and it was so beautiful!  

I wore a Forever 21 asymmetrical dress, leggings from Target and my studded flats that I bought from Target  a few years ago. I also wore studded bangles from Forever 21, and I bought my sunglasses during a street fair in Seattle.

A little bit of a self portrait taken with my camera phone.

My husband, Mark, and I had a little date afternoon and had lunch and a drink in our super-cute downtown area.  My outfit is from Target, except the cardigan, which I bought at Ross, and my sunglasses (yes, the same ones from the street fair.)

 And some proof of the vodka tonic-ness of the last week: 

Yum and Yum!

And I when I say Vodka Tonic, I really mean a vodka tonic and 2 limes.  It's my drink, Yo!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

I am linking up with The Pleated Poppy.

Good Eats in Seattle

When I go to new places,I love to try out new restaurants and foods. In Seattle, I had fun going out to eat with my friends and I annoyingly paused to take pictures of my food before we chowed down.  If you're like me, you like seeing what other people eat, if you're not...well, carry on and pretend this never happened.

This is the 'Fried Chicken Sammy' from Skillet Counter, with "fennel seed crust, pickled and charred jalapeño aioli, kale, potato roll "and fries.

It was so good, except I was surprised the chicken was thigh pieces and not a breast.  I didn't eat half of the chicken because it was dark meat and there were some fatty bits. I wish the menu had indicated this, because I am really picky about meat.  I ate the white meat pieces, though, and those were delicious!

We spent an afternoon at Pike Place Market, and had a lat lunch at the Copacabana. This meal was like amazing comfort food to me, it was chicken breast with onions and peppers over rice.  I had a glass of sangria with it, and we people-watched while eating.  The atmosphere was amazing, even though it was hot that day and we were sitting outside.

 That night, we came home and drank Framboise, a really delicious 'lambic' that tastes like bubbly raspberry wine.  Then, around 11, we ordered Chinese food to be delivered and like magic, we were eating chicken & broccoli and rice, drinking Framboise and watching The Departed. Late night delivery doesn't exist in my hometown, so I was totally star-struck with it.  I'm easily amused, I tell you.

The Sunday we were there, I met up with my cousin, Jen, who has lived in Seattle for 17 years, and who I don't get to see often (um, at all).  She and her husband, Chris, took me to Luna Park Cafe in West Seattle for brunch.  Jen and I both ordered the Elvis waffle, which came to us in  DIY form.  It was amazing, especially with the bacon peeking out underneath the waffle.  Oh, and plenty of coffee!

We walked around West Seattle, shopping for vintage things in antique stores and we also stopped by a really cool record store, Easy Street Records, where I bought two used CD's for under 10 bucks.

We then went to Cupcake Royale, which was actually the first cupcake shop I had ever been in.   I had the strawberry shortcake cupcake and it was so moist and delicious.  So much yum!

Jen had the raspberry lemonade cupcake and I was so happy with the picture I happened to get of it.  I had a bite of this one, too, and it was tart and delicious!

On our last night, we went to The Lookout for a drink and dinner.  Erika, my friend and hostess is an always vegetarian/usually vegan and I shared two little dishes.  One was the baked brie with almonds, balsamic vinegar, red peppers and Kalamata olives.  I ate almost all of this, it was so good!

We also shared the quinoa nuggets, which was my introduction to quinoa.  They were really tasty and filling and tasted almost like fish nuggets with the tartar sauce that was served with them.

As we were leaving town, we stopped at one last Starbucks (a lot of coffee was consumed on this trip!) for lunch.  I tried something new for me, the mozzarella and pesto panini, which was so delicious!  I would definitely get this again when I'm in a hurry. My coffee drink right now is always a large iced skinny vanilla latte (or an iced caramel machiatto with non fat milk and half caramel.)  I love coffee!

All these pictures and reminiscing about the food just made me so hungry. I also ate a lot of fresh fruit, yogurt and turkey sandwiches while I was there.  Somehow, I lost weight on the vacation...I think from all of the walking and really, I didn't make horrible choices and we usually ate out only one meal a day. It was such a fun and yummy trip!